Videogame Releases: Week of June 22nd, 2014

It’s hard for anyone to forget the Michael Bay version of ‘Transformers’, especially since it shows up in theaters every few years to dispense bad jokes, indistinguishable anthropomorphic machines, and lots of explosions. Meanwhile the two ‘Cybertron’ games have given us a ‘Transformers’ property without all the self-parody and nonsensical plotting, but with gameplay elements similar to the ‘Gears of War’ series. ‘Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark‘ seeks to combine both the movie series and the game series into a messy but (hopefully) playable game.

Valiant Hearts: The Great War (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC)

I love the UbiArt Framework engine (and accompanying art style) of ‘Child of Light‘ and ‘Rayman Legends‘. This new game, ‘Valiant Hearts: The Great War‘, runs very somber, with a story built on the actual letters of World War I soldiers. Considering the medium, the art style and the subject (the tragic elements of a war less remembered each day), I hope that the public might support the game out on principle alone.

GRID: Autosport (360, PS3, PC)

Codemasters has brought no less than five very distinct racing disciplines to players with ‘GRID: Autosport‘, all emphasizing the PS3 and 360 as target platforms (rather than porting over to PS4 and Xbox One). As such, this is the first racing title to grab my attention since ‘Forza 5’ and ‘Need for Speed: Rivals’ were less than I had hoped.

Xblaze Code: Embryo (PS3, Vita)

Gamers who enjoy Arc System Works’ fighter series ‘BlazBlue’ owe it to themselves to check out the story prequel ‘Xblaze Code: Embryo‘. Since it’s not a fighter, fans of Japanese visual novels may also want to give it a look.

Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare (PC)

After a successful debut on the Xbox One, ‘Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare‘ is finally coming to the PC. The team at PopCap has stated that the PC version has been reworked specifically to take advantage of the PC platform, input, UI, etc.

About Brian Hoss

Brian Hoss is a videogame designer who has worked for years in the gaming industry. He has worked with some of the industry's biggest publishers, including Activision, Electronic Arts and Zenimax. He studied writing, politics and programming, and counts home theater enthusiasm and film analysis among his many hobbies.
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5 comments

“A war less remembered each day”. In America, perhaps, but the memorials are in full swing in Europe. It’s been 100 years since the start of WWI and we can’t forget the sad history. Right now, there are new books in stores, a tv series, guided tours etcetera. They even reprinted old newspapers from 1914 … and started selling them again in magazine stores.

William Henley

I think more than anything, WWI permanantly reshaped Europe. It was the start of the breakups of huge empires and the start of different ethnicities getting their own states. Many countries that were part of the AustroHungarian Empire never fully recovered economically. And the results of the end of WWI are pretty much what directly lead to WWII (ie the economic sanctions put on Germany is what allowed Hitler and the Nazi party to rise to power). So while there may be few still alive who lived through it, the results of WWI are still very much felt.

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